Skype therapy? It's working for veterans

Skype therapy? It's working for veterans
LA Times
By Tony Perry
July 4, 2013

Veteran Ruben Moreno Garcia has been working with his VA therapist for two years — but they've never met face-to-face.

EL CENTRO, Calif. — Ruben Moreno Garcia, who served three combat tours in Iraq, now lives with his family in this Imperial Valley community and works as a mechanic in Yuma, Ariz.

Kathryn Williams, a clinical psychologist for the Department of Veterans Affairs, has an office in La Jolla, more than 100 miles away.

Williams and Moreno Garcia meet once a week for an hour or so to discuss his progress in coping with post-traumatic stress disorder, the condition common to U.S. military personnel who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Their sessions are over the Internet, using a firewall-protected connection and a different password for each session.

"Being in your own living room for sessions, that's comfortable," said Moreno Garcia, 31, who studied computers before enlisting in the Army.
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